The Detention Center
Purgatory Correctional Facility
- Operated byWashington County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division (Corrections Chief Deputy / Jail Commander Trevor Benson)
- Jail address750 South 5300 West, Hurricane, Utah 84737
- Beds / year built / costNot found — no capacity or construction figures published on the Sheriff's Office site
- What was triedChecked news.washeriff.net aboutus/wcso, contact-information, and all Inmate Information subpages; no facility statistics page found
Source: Washington County Sheriff's Office — Contact Information · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Barry Golding
- Runs the jailYes — the Washington County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division operates Purgatory Correctional Facility
- How the office is filledElected; Utah Code Title 17 Chapter 22 places the sheriff in charge of the county jail
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Washington County Sheriff's Office — WCSO & Mission Statement · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Utah's District Court and Justice Court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. District Court judges are appointed by the Governor through a nominating commission, then face retention election. Justice Court judges are appointed by local government (here, the Washington County Commission) and also face retention.
Fifth District Court (Washington, Iron, Beaver Counties) — Judges
- Matthew L. Bell
- Jay T. Winward
- Eric R. Gentry
- Ryan E. Christiansen
- Meb W. Anderson
- Bryan J. Pattison
- Jack B. Burns
Washington County Justice Court — Judges
- Douglas Whitlock
- Ronald L. Read
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Utah Code 17-22-32 requires in-custody death reporting to the state, and the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice publishes a mortality summary, but no county-published death record was found on the Sheriff's Office site.
- The Sheriff's Office site names other jails/prisons' phone numbers (Draper, Gunnison, Iron County) as informational contacts, not as contract partners; no contract/rate document was found.
- Washington County Commission — three-member elected Board of County Commissioners: Adam Snow, Victor Iverson, Gil Almquist.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Washington County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered